We are looking for more detail on how to extend the MySQL database encryption from the default AES 128 to 256 bit. Here is the blurb from the MySQL 5.5 documentation:"AES_ENCRYPT() and AES_DECRYPT() implement encryption and decryption of data using the official AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm, previously known as “Rijndael.” The AES standard allows various key sizes. These functions implement AES with a 128-bit key length, but you can extend them to 256 bits by modifying the source. The key length is a trade off between performance and security."

Does anyone have more detail on how to accomplish this within MySQL beyond the very vague "by modifying the source" statement? Any assistance or push in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for you time!

What that means is that you will need to go into the source and either modify a constant somewhere or more likely just rebuild it with an appropriate flag to enable 256 bit encryption. Rumor has it the mysql source is a bit of a mess these days so I'm not sure how hard that is.